Author: PaleoMarine

Former active duty Marine who went from 170 lbs to 328 lbs and decided that he had to change his life or die. He lost 130 lbs in 1 year through Whole30 and adopting the Paleo Diet without doing any exercise at all. Since starting running, he's lost an additional 20 lbs and is comfortably back in the 170 lbs range. He is currently a Chief Warrant Officer in the Army National Guard and writes multiple blogs about topics he is passionate about.

Post-Run Report: March 9, 2017

Today’s run was supposed to be a slow run, and while it wasn’t nearly my fastest, it was by no means a crawl. I was able to keep the pace below the 10 minute/mile for the average although my last mile was the slowest with a 10:03/mile pace for the last half. I will begin to work on speed again maybe later next week or the week after. My speed is good now. I want to be back to sub-9’s by April.

Otherwise, it was a good run. Felt pretty good and no pain to speak of. Only did 60 push ups, but anything past 60 for me is gravy anyway. I will keep working on this. I’d like to get to 100 easy push ups before my runs.

I didn’t do sit ups again. I hope this isn’t going to bite me in the butt in April.

I’ll run again on Saturday. Hopefully the weather cooperates, but it’s not looking good.

The Day After

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Today is the day after my first day back at running since coming home from vacation and I feel great. I am mentally refreshed, a lot of stress relieved. My muscles feel good; I didn’t overdo it, and I slept very well. My arms feel normal, another sign that I didn’t overdo it. All in all, the reason I run is to be stronger, to have better endurance, and to stay fit. Days like today are a reminder to me that I’m doing the right thing, and that I need to continue to do the right thing. While today is an off-day for running, I look forward to tomorrow’s run. I will likely take it easy to make it a “Fun run.” We’ll see how that goes and if it translates into a longer run or the standard 3 mile run.

Post-Run Report: March 6, 2017

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I had my first run since returning from vacation in Spain. My wife asked me if I had a good run, and I answered her by saying, “Not really, but it had to be done.” Now, don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy running, but today’s run wasn’t pleasant. It was hard work and it was painful at times. I didn’t understand why until after my run when I looked at my stats.

The first half mile, I ran hard because I wanted to beat the 10 minute mile pace. Well, I guess I was a little over-zealous, because my first half-mile pace was an 8:34/mile pace. My second half-mile was at a 9:17/mile pace, and I kept it under a 10 minute/mile for the first two miles. Only the last mile went over by a little bit, but that was to be expected after the lack of running as much as I normally do in the last two weeks.

Overall, I am happy with the average pace being under 10 minutes/mile, though. That did make me happy. Also, I pushed myself to do 65 push ups. Well, not really pushed myself, but I was able to do them without much trouble. I could have pushed to 70 or even 75, but I figured there’s no sense in causing myself arm pain tomorrow. Besides, I’m already over the required 60 push ups in two minutes for my Army APFT, so at this point, I’m working on gravy.

I’ve yet to start my sit ups. I need to do that before my next run on Wednesday. I have my first APFT in April, and I need to do my very best. I want to show the soldiers I’ll be working with that I’m ready for the tasks at hand, and that I take this seriously.

After all is said and done, I’m glad to be back to my routine. My legs felt pretty good, and although I’m a bit tired, I’m more relaxed having run. I actually am already looking forward to my next run. There are things I’ll do a little different (like not start off so blazing fast). I need to even my pace a bit more on my runs.

Post-Run Report: March 1, 2017

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Although I planned on running more while in Spain, I was only able to get in two runs in the 12 days I was on vacation. This was my second run. My first run in Spain was in Barcelona, and this run was in Madrid’s Parque del Retiro. I’m glad I got out there and ran, but I do with I ran more often.

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With that said, the run was actually pretty decent. I had to work pretty hard running up some hills, but that was a good thing. My breathing was okay, and my legs felt pretty good, too. My pace was much slower, though, due to the altitude. I never realized how high Madrid was! All the walking we’ve been doing in Spain made sure my legs were still strong, though. I could definitely feel the lack of cardio coupled with the altitude, though.

My push ups definitely suffered: I’m down to doing 60 instead of my usual 80. No worries, though: I’ll bring those numbers back up over the coming weeks.

I am happy that I ran on vacation, even if it wasn’t as much as I had planned. I made it a priority, and I stuck to it. It was also nice to run in such beautiful places. I will always treasure the memory of running in these locations, and I hope to be able to do so more in the future.

Post-Run Report: February 25, 2017

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Post-run on the street in Barcelona. It was cool outside, but it felt great once the blood was pumping.

Finally. It’s been a week since I last ran and I was finally able to get a run in this morning in the Plaza de Sagrada Familia. In case you’re wondering, that’s in Barcelona, Spain directly across from the back side of the Sagrada Familia Basilica. Talk about running in history! The park is beautiful with many people from around the world (which were difficult to dodge from time to time, but only at the side of the plaza near the church) and sights we rarely get to enjoy during a run. The added bonus: half of the plaza run course (which was the exterior sidewalk) is up-hill. While the run’s pace was slower than my average lately, the level of workout I received was on-par or harder than usual for a 3 mile run.

I haven’t been able to run in the past week due to the activities and weather here. Now, it looks like the rest of the trip will be more amenable to a regular run activity at least every other day, so I should have at least another 2-3 runs here in Spain before returning home.

Today’s distance: 3 miles with a 10:24 pace but an amazing view, so I’m okay with the slower pace. Besides, half of it was literally running up a hill and dodging people, so there’s that.

Post-Run Report: February 18, 2017

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I had a running partner with me this morning: Sherry! We hit the road this morning while it was still nice and cool out, and I promised to keep things slower for her. In the end, it turned out that we kept a pretty steady 9:30/mile pace through our 3.42 miles which was a third-best for Sherry and a run that I was happy with. I felt good throughout the run, and I didn’t have any pain at all. In the push ups department, I only did 70, but as long as I can hover between 70 and 80, I’m happy. One day, that number will be 100, but as long as it’s over 70, we’re good.

This was our last run before we leave for Spain. Our next run will be in a new country and in a new city. We are very much looking forward to it, and taking our running to a new continent.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Wow. I was nominated by the immensely talented Leadinglady at Mom on the Go to post seven sort of interesting things about me. If you haven’t checked out her blog, you should. It’s really good, and she’s a great photographer who captures amazing snippets of her life with beauty.

Without further adieu, here are the seven sort of interesting things about me:

  1. I enlisted into the National Guard at age 49 today. That sounds crazy, but it makes sense when you learn that I have spent 11 years on active duty in the Marines and that I only need 9 more years to complete my 20 years to a retirement.
  2. As a Marine, I was an on-air radio DJ in the Philippines as part of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (also known as AFRTS). I was volunteering and trying to OJT into a new MOS at the time. It was a lot of fun!
  3. I play bass guitar in a band with my daughter who is the singer and my wife who plays drums. Two friends round out the band playing guitars. Our band is named Ninja Fist Class.
  4. I met Jesse Owens as a kid and sat in his lap as he told me about how he began running.
  5. My first concert was Elvis Presley when I was 10 years old. He died shortly thereafter.
  6. I massaged Courtney Love’s feet. It’s a long story. Maybe one day I’ll tell the entire tale.
  7. I met my wife because of blogging. Again, another long story, and I’ll probably post it in the future.

So there you have it! Seven sort of interesting things about me!

I’ll try to follow the spirit of this by listing some blogs here. I’m getting ready for a trip out of the country right now, so it’ll  have to wait a bit. I will do it, though!

Post-Run Report: February 15, 2017

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Thank goodness, I was able to get out there and make it happen and nothing bad happened! I started out easy for the first mile with a 10:34/mile pace and found no pain, so with each successive half-mile, I upped my pace. In the end, I was running 8:58/mile and ended with an average pace of 9:54/mile. I stuck to 3.2 miles because I didn’t want to go too far too soon, but it seems that the three day hiatus from running was what my knee needed to get better. I will run again on Friday and then not again until I am in Spain.

Ultimately, I’m super-excited to be back to running. I was nervous all day, not because I dislike running, but because I was afraid that I would begin running and find the pain persisted. I was pleasantly surprised to not experience any pain, and even as I ran harder and harder to raise the pace, my legs felt fine. Even afterward, they felt good. This morning (I’m writing this report the morning after the run), my legs have the “You ran yesterday” feeling which is to say that they don’t hurt. They feel good and strong.

So, about yesterday’s run…

It didn’t happen. I had an appointment after work I had to go to (more on that Friday) and when I got home, I had dinner with my wife. Since my knees are still not 100%, I decided to take a third off-day. As much as I am hating it psychologically, my knees are much happier today.

I’m really looking forward to my run today although, to be honest, I’m a little nervous. This is my longest break in running since November when I got sick, and I remember it was tough to get back into it. Now, to be fair, that was nearly two weeks while this was just three days since running last, so I should be okay.

I just need to remember to  not push it and take it easy. I have a vacation starting in a few days and the last thing I need is a knee injury while in Spain.

If the weather is nice enough, I’ll run today

So far, the knee is holding up. Ironically, it’s the left knee that is giving me some pain today due to some of the limping I was doing Sunday, but I think it’ll go away after a few steps of running. If the weather isn’t stormy after work today, I will run. I’m going to push myself to go easy. I know that’s sort of an oxymoron, but it’s going to be hard to hold myself back. I want to take it easy and have a gentle 3-mile run. Sherry says it should be 2 miles, but 3 is my minimum. I’ll try to stick to a 10 minute (or slower) mile.

Well, unless there is no pain at all. If that’s the case, I’m going for it. I have made too much progress to give any of that back.